


201: Rhythms

by harlequin (julie)



Series: Season 2 [1]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-09-07
Updated: 2009-09-07
Packaged: 2017-11-06 10:46:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/417979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/julie/pseuds/harlequin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin is reluctant to go back to performing <em>all </em>his old duties after Arthur passed him over for Cedric.</p>
            </blockquote>





	201: Rhythms

♦

‘Merlin,’ said Arthur in his most insufferable prat voice. ‘You are _not_ going to be difficult about this.’

Merlin’s jaw set even harder. ‘Depends.’

Arthur sighed, and apparently decided to humour him. ‘On what, exactly?’

‘You know very well what.’

‘Do I?’ Arthur said heavily and rhetorically.

Merlin didn’t bother replying, but instead gave Arthur a little shove that sat him down on the side of the bed. He knelt to start wrestling Arthur’s boots off. Once Arthur was barefoot, Merlin stood again, and Arthur raised his arms so that Merlin could draw his tunic up and off. Arthur tried to hide it, but Merlin noticed he still winced a little as he shifted his left arm. ‘How’s the wound?’ Merlin asked.

‘It’s fine.’

Merlin knelt again so he could take a closer look at the damage over Arthur’s ribs, though it was hard to see much detail with only the firelight and a pair of candles. The skin seemed to have healed over, but Arthur obviously wasn’t comfortable. ‘Where’s it hurting? Inside or out?’

‘It’s not.’

‘Yeah, right. D’you want me to fetch Gaius?’

‘Oh, shut up, Merlin. I’m fine. Get on with it, would you?’ And Arthur carefully swung around and lay himself back on the bed. Waited there with barely veiled impatience.

‘Goodnight, then, sire.’

‘ _Merlin_ …’

‘Mmm…?’

‘For god’s sake! You know what I want. You are _not_ going to make me ask for it.’

But Merlin was feeling hopelessly stubborn. ‘You’re gonna have to say it,’ he insisted.

Arthur growled. ‘I require you to perform… those particular night–time duties you were so… horribly inept at.’

‘Right.’ Merlin stood there beside the bed with his arms crossed. ‘And why would you even want me to, if I was so useless?’

‘Your, uh… rather touching eagerness made up for your laughable lack of talent. I’d as soon kick a puppy as deny you your simple pleasures.’

‘I see.’ Merlin sniffed in disapproval. ‘And did _he_ perform those duties for you?’

‘Yes,’ said Arthur very smoothly, ‘I realise that’s what the problem is. You’re jealous.’

‘I am not! And what do you mean, _yes_? Yes, he did?’

‘I am hardly going to answer such impertinent questions from a _servant_.’

‘ _Did_ he?’

‘Oh, for god’s sake! What do you take me for?’

‘A spoilt brat who’s far too used to getting his own way.’

‘Right,’ said Arthur in clipped tones. ‘You can go now.’

Which was, of course, when Merlin finally relented and started unfastening the prat’s britches.

‘What part of _You can go now_ do you not understand, Merlin? The words are simple enough. The intent must be obvious. You have been dismissed for the night.’

‘Shut up, Arthur,’ he grumbled. Merlin got up onto the bed, and straddled Arthur on all fours. Bent his head to take the royal cock into his mouth. He sucked gently for a few moments, then let the flat of his tongue rasp up the length of it. ‘Did he do this for you?’ Merlin whispered, lips against the prince’s sensitive cockhead.

‘What’s it to you if he did?’ Arthur said, though his defiance was undermined by the way his breath panted.

Merlin knelt up, and started discarding his clothes – while Arthur watched him with undeniable interest, though he managed to maintain his cranky expression. When Merlin was finally done, he settled with his thighs either side of Arthur’s hips, slowly shifting just enough to let Arthur’s cockhead graze along from Merlin’s balls back to his hole. ‘Did he do this for you?’ Merlin demanded.

‘What if he did?’ Arthur repeated, though with even less conviction.

This act was so familiar by now that Merlin knew exactly when to let his weight sink down. He groaned as he smoothly gave himself, as he let himself be taken. Then he rested there with his eyes closed, with his arse against the very top of Arthur’s thighs, with his body as full as his soul was of _Arthur_ and _destiny_ and _necessity_ and _power_ and _submission_.

‘Merlin,’ Arthur said raggedly, his hands settling on Merlin’s thighs, to encompass, to grasp. ‘ _Move_ , god damn you…’

‘Sire…’ he answered on a sigh – and began lifting and falling, in a rhythm as old as the ocean, depending on Arthur to anchor him.

They kept it going for as long as they could, until at last their long easy groans were grunts of barely controlled need, and Arthur’s fingers were digging in bruisingly just above Merlin’s knees. Arthur at last shifted his hands, lay one firm yet tender on Merlin’s cock, and carefully stroked – cupped Merlin’s balls with the other, and gently tugged. ‘He didn’t do this for me, either,’ Arthur murmured – and he abruptly triggered Merlin’s climax.

Merlin cried out, his head falling back, his body shuddering, his hands clutching – and Arthur pushed up into him with a shout, following him down, spinning him round. ‘Arthur!’ cried Merlin. ‘ _Arthur!_ ’

‘I know, god, _I know_.’

Arthur was still favouring the wound on his left, so Merlin collapsed down under his right arm, pushed in close against the man. ‘I missed you,’ Merlin whispered as they began to quieten.

‘I know,’ Arthur repeated. But his tone was as soft as if he’d said, _I missed you, too_. ‘Don’t be such an idiot next time.’

Merlin snorted ironically. ‘Are you gonna not be such a prat?’

Arthur shifted just enough to glance at him. He was obviously trying not to grin. ‘Probably not.’

‘I can’t make any promises, then.’

‘Right.’ In a contented echo of his clipped tones. ‘No promises.’ But his tone conveyed quite the opposite.

♦


End file.
